I realize I've nearly given June a miss for my usual monthly MWO post. Honestly, I'm a touch short of material, since I usually highlight a mech that I've spent time grinding through the elite skill tier, and this month I've mostly been using reliable workhorses (HBK-4P w/ 3LPL, Loki w/ 2UAC5, & GHR-5P w/ 3LPL) to grind out C-Bills and unlock weapon modules in anticipation of the Cyclops arriving in August.

Because I've got the Cyclops on the brain, below are the garbled, disjointed notes that I've cobbled together regarding possible builds for the mech over the past several weeks. They're presented in code tags, because it's a direct copy-paste from an un-word-wrapped text file, and I can't be bothered to sort out the line breaks and tab-stops in a properly-formatted forum post. The raw copy-paste job may also give a bit of insight into how my head works, when I get a first look at a chassis.

When I reference test builds, I used Smurphy's mech lab utility with a Mauler as a surrogate for the 10z, 11adc, and 11p builds. I'd slap in an XL250 to occupy the crit slots for the engine, note the weight difference between that engine and an XL400, and add weapons, ammo, and equipment until that difference was the tonnage free. The 10q test builds were a back-of-the-napkin quality pen-and-paper job, since there are no 90t Inner Sphere mechs with six or seven missile hardpoints. All builds assume the use of endo-steel internals, though I think one or two of the 10q builds would benefit from foregoing endo in favor of more open crit slots. That determination will have to wait until the mech is out or I get bored enough to redo those builds by hand.

[STRIKE]Oh, hey.... Ghost heat 2.0 gets implemented in the same patch as introduces the Cyclops.[/STRIKE]Thankfully, PGI can't hit a deadline for shit. Alpha strikes over 30 damage get punished. That's *all* of these configs.

* - ideas that can at least be slapped together Most of these ideas can be improved, since I didn't optimize crit slot usage. Might consider other engine options too. Ten tons separate the XL360 and the XL400. Armor shaving - 60pts on each arm; 32pts/ton - most builds can strip at least one arm Important things neglected: AC10 builds - particularly on brawlly 11p's.Skip the hero preorder - might buy for MC later - ballistics in both torsos (dual-Gauss stock) 2UAC5+AC5 w/ XL400 as an easy dakka build - plenty of space for ammo & 2 MLs/MPLsSkip/Sell the CYC11-a - in basic pack - redundant w/ CYC-11adc - unless you want to do a silly 3AC2 buildXL400 acquired in summer grab bag event.

Quirk Notes - Weapon quirks are pretty minimal. Torso has modest structure quirks, but those meaty legs have no durability buffs. A couple of chassis have Gauss quirks, so consider Gauss builds on those.

Even though I don't play, I enjoy the reads on these. Glad you got the June post in there

"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

The Cyclops comes out tomorrow, the quirks were announced, and I've been poking around with my build notes again. Twenty-three builds is the final pre-release total. Hopefully, I can make a couple of them work, or all this thought committed to the page is going to be a bit of an embarrassment. Below is a quick highlight of the builds I'm going to start with on each of the four variants that I plan on eventually mastering (noting all of the caveats above about cobbling together preview builds, without a proper mechlab stand-in available):

A point worth noting: I'm starting to shift away from Large Pulse Lasers and toward Large Lasers, in anticipation of a damage nerf slowly sliding its way down the pike. Some time back, Large Lasers did 9 damage and LPLs did 10, and nobody thought that one damage, even with the shorter beam duration, was worth giving up about 100m of range and two additional tons per laser. They buffed the LPL's damage to 11 as an enticement, and it made for an interesting choice in the mechlab. Now, they're testing a reversal of that buff....for reasons. This all makes the XL Swayback very sad and shifted some of my choices shown above.

Finally, that CYC-11p build looks like a mixed range build, but it's not. The UAC5+AC5 combination is pretty smashy up close, barring excessive jamming, so it's meant to work at closer ranges, where it can use the autocannons and SRMs in combination, despite having the capability to fire from longer ranges with just the ballistic weapons. This combination of autocannons is preferable to an AC20, in this case, since it allows the use of an XL engine, where as a torso-mounted AC20 consumes too much space in the side-torso to leave room for the XL engine's spillover. The medium lasers allow for a damage burst at the start of the fight or at the end, when you can overheat, without fear of reprisal.

Now you know what will be eating up my free time for the next few weeks.

I just unlocked Speed Tweak on the four Cyclops variants that I'm focused on, so I should have a proper Cyclops post written up before the end of the month. Most of the builds have been refined a bit, but despite testing some other wildly different builds, I've come back to ones very similar to what I started with. On one of them, I went through quite a bit of tribulation about whether I should mount another half-ton of ammo. Ultimately, I did, and...

Smashy smashy.

MWO 09.11.2016-01.27.05.jpg (447.66 KiB) Viewed 5755 times

...I used it.

Also, I've also had my chuckle at the forum index truncating the LRM assault mech thread's title to "Don't do this to your ass..." God, I'm juvenile.

I had a drop on Frozen City in my CYC-11adc earlier today. Things looked grim at the start, when I tore off along the northern cliff face, with only a Shadow Cat and an Arctic Cheetah to keep me company. The rest of the team had strung out along the eastern edge of no-man's land, and I thought we were going to be rolled. That in mind, I decided to continue flanking and draw what blood I could, prior to the inevitable defeat.

I got lucky, spotting a Centurion that slipped past the two lighter mechs ahead of me, and it tried to sneak into the wrecked dropship to ... ambush someone? ... avoid me? I don't know what he was really trying to do, because it's becoming increasingly rare for people to move through the buildings in the center-north of the map. Whatever. He tried to take cover behind the derelict Atlas, and I just walked up to him and smashed him. He had enough firepower to soften my armor, particularly on the right torso, but he was doomed the moment he backed himself into that corner.

Popping out of the dropship, the Cheetah and Shadow Cat began making their way toward the western edge of no-man's land, where the enemy team had crossed earlier. I ran across the southern edge, staying out of sight, only by virtue of the tunnel-vision of hostiles in the southern part of the city. Turns out, all of those hostiles were various forms of energy sniper, including a Marauder with five ER large lasers, a Shadow Cat with three ER large lasers, and a Hunchback IIC with some combination of large pulse and ER medium lasers. If I had been caught in the open, it would have been bad. In fact, even though I wasn't being shot at, I still shielded with my left side for the entire run across the gully between the western and eastern halves of the map.

On the way, my detachment lost the Shadow Cat, who headed north to try to regroup with the rest of the team, leaving just me and the Cheetah. That Arctic Cheetah pilot knew exactly what he needed to do, while we were running paired. He never got too far ahead to where he couldn't support me, and he did an ace job of prioritizing threats. When I saw a Locust closing in, I figured he'd either be the end of me or turn into an ammo sink, if I were to start trying to take its legs. That Cheetah pilot made sure that I never had to worry about it, though, taking out the Locust (and maybe another light/medium?), while I got to focus on dealing damage to bigger targets.

And deal damage I did. First, I focused on the Marauder, while the Shadow Cat tried plinking away at my armor from far too close for his build. Once the Marauder was down, that Shadow Cat was my next target, deciding to run too late. The Hunchback IIC intercepted me, while I was chasing the Shadow Cat. I switched targets, first blasting through the Hunchback's back armor with a volley of SRMs and an AC10 shell, then softening his front armor with another combined volley. He ducked around a corner, hoping to get a shot off, as I passed, but I saw through his shenanigans and got my shot off first, finishing him off in one final volley to the center torso. Meanwhile, whatever went through the hostile Shadow Cat pilot's head, pulling range wasn't it. He showed up around a corner within range of all of my weapons, and I made sure he didn't have enough time alive to regret the mistake.

At that point, I had a moment to check the score and saw that we were up ten to five. The last two mechs were on the opposite side of the gully again. As I started running in that direction, I took some pot shots with my AC10 against a Highlander IIC out in the open, dealing some inconsequential damage and making it about halfway to the target, before those hostile survivors finally succumbed to the rest of the team. So much for being rolled over.

Lesson learned: The weight invested in a big engine pays dividends, when your 90-ton assault mech starts showing up in all kinds of places where it's not expected.